Bringing the Eid pics back for reclaim the bindi week, ft my mehndi.
In all honesty, I’ve been fighting my internalized racism ever since last year, and still am today. I would hide the fact that I was Pakistani, and it was a lot easier for me to do so because I’m light skinned. The last thing people would guess when they looked at me was that I was Pakistani. Unfortunately, I took pride in my pale skin, because I didn’t want to be associated with my people. Having a not so amazing upbringing and seeing only but the negatives of my South Asian community and culture, I hated being one of them. Even more not so amazing, I used to find white people better. I also had the similar phase where I would be agitated when my mother spoke urdu in front of white people. I would be ashamed to wear my Ethnic clothing at the supermarket or the shopping centres. And worst of all I was also the type to shame other South Asians for wearing their ethnic clothing, whether they were “freshies” or not, in white majority areas. Think of all those “freshie” jokes, I said all of them. I didn’t want to be mistaken as a “freshie”, I wanted people to see me as Scottish, and only that. I judged a whole race in one negative category.
Since last December, however, I’m really happy to say that I have been correcting myself, and constantly fighting the internalized racism, while checking and acknowledging my privilege as a lighter skinned Desi. I’ve learned so much, and to be honest I’m still learning and actively standing up for my people, calling out and talking about issues like shadism within my community and with those I talk to on a regular basis. Even though I’ve never been teased about my henna or my food, I only know too well about the racial tension and internalized shame of taking pride in our culture while we are constantly assimilated to Western culture in society. We grow up having this normalised idea that it’s better to hide and tuck away our culture, and to only open it up at certain places and events. Since when was our culture only to be flaunted at weddings and South Asian themed events?
With the stories I’ve read from other South Asians and what they had to go through growing up, only to break away from their culture and instead appeal to what Western society wants, its funny how history loves to repeat itself.
But really, whether our experiences were minor or extreme, the psychological impact on our lives have remained the same. From start to finish, we have constantly been judged, not as an individual person, but judged as a whole race and minority collectively. In the end, no matter how much we try to change ourselves to be treated better in the eyes of Western society, we would never be completely accepted. We would always be seen as different.
Despite what people think, reclaim the bindi week has given us South Asians a really good opportunity to let our voices be heard. When I first saw this happening on Tumblr, I felt so much pride. Since then I’ve wanted to always write something in contribution to this event. We as people who have suffered so much backlash and unneeded consequences just for trying to take back what was forced out of our hands for 200 years, have every right to call out people who steal it, who exploit it, who profit off of it, who use it for their own selfish, bigoted reasons, while walking over our voices and turning away from what we say.
So yes. Reclaim the bindi. Reclaim that god damn sari, the headpieces, the jewels, the shalwaar kameez, everything we created by us and for us as South Asians. 200+ years of exploitation, up until this day, and we’re still going strong despite it all. Good on us.

As a retail employee for a major store, fucking steal whatever you need. I get paid shit and they barely pay attention to inventory. I take essentials all the time because my paycheck doesn't cover rent, insurance, food, and essentials. It's a very cool and good thing for those who are in need to do. Company still profits! So who gives a shit?

aries:you're a hungry ghost, died in random tragic circumstances. scary people (a lot!!) so you can feed yourself of victims fear energy

taurus:you're an angel, died making a good action to someone else and became an angel. now "is in this world" to protect people from bad things

gemini:you're a living ghost, you didn't die yet but is on deep coma. show intelligence and self awareness and is trying to tell your family/friends something

cancer:you're a lost ghost, died by accident on a very important time on life. you know you're dead but you're very scared of move on and leave everything behind

leo:you're a guardian angel, died while your child are still a newborn. now you can't leave this world, because you feel a huge need to protect your baby

virgo:you're an itelligent residual ghost, died in some place by bad lucky, probably. you can move things, communicate and scary the shit out of the living

libra:you're a child ghost, died by accident while playing around. is kinda friendly but want another company so may induce people to death

scorpio:you're a vengeful ghost, died by a man how once you loved. now you only torments and attacks males when they're present in the place you've been murdered

sagittarius:you're a demon, you didn't die bc you're not human. you are a god. appear as many entities to confuse, extract fear energy out of victims, possess...

capricorn:you're a ghost with unfinished business, died a very sudden death. can't leave until make sure everything will be as fine as you planned in life

aquarius:you're a ghost that is unaware that you're dead, died a simple alone death. don't even know that are dead, just keep doing stuff like is still alive

pisces:you're a ghost who is seen at the time of your death by family & friends as a way of saying goodbye or giving important information, died in the hospital probably very sick. wants to comfort people

Joey Camacho is a freelance 3D motion and graphic designer based in Vancouver, Canada. He has created conceptual and creative design work professionally for reputable global brands as well as passionate local companies. He specializes in comprehensive brand development and 3D design and is a graduate from the Alberta College of Art + Design with a degree in Visual Communications.

A couple of weeks ago my psychopathology professor showed us a video featuring a man who had recovered from schizophrenia, and his viewpoint on mental illness. He said that recovery is about finding meaningful relationships and meaningful work. He then said something else, something that really stuck with me. He said that in Finland, mental illness is thought of as “going into monologue.” When someone begins to suffer from mental illness, their community is gathered around them in order to reestablish dialogue.

That floored me, the simple idea that illness is a monologue and recovery is reestablishing dialogue. Mental health is dialogue. It couldn’t be more true. “People caring for people is the best way to prevent psychiatric problems.”

I don’t suffer from mental illness, but like most people I do get very low sometimes. I have moments of discouragement, hopelessness, and struggle. I was feeling this way last Saturday night, actually. It was kind of a “nothing in my life is going the way I want it to and it probably never will so I might as well just stop trying” pity party. What I felt about my current life situation and my worth had become a monologue.

And then. Then on Sunday I got the chance to have a good heart to heart with lesleylloyd and wow, if I had forgotten how much I need other people this was my reminder. Everything about that conversation made me feel so much better. My struggles were still the same, but suddenly I was talking about them with someone who understood, someone who could say “me too” to so many of the things I was going through and feeling. Situations were still the same, but we could vent about them and even laugh about them. I realized that yeah, sometimes, most of the time, there’s so much more hope present in an honest conversation with someone else than there is in my thought monologue. That’s hard for to remember at times, as an introvert with a naturally tendency to say in my own head, but I’m so thankful for friends who help me to reestablish dialogue.

Hi guys! I’ve made a lot of new friends over the last couple of days through Flight Rising and FR tumblr users, so I decided to create a chat room for all of us! Everyone is invited, and the sharing link is open to everyone, so feel free to pass the link around. If you get lost, there’s a link on my blog with the password right next to it too! It’s open forever as long as people visit every so often. Please join me! I made text color options when you join that are flight based, but custom colors are enabled too C:

What is not allowed: No rudeness, spam, multiple posts of advertising (only advertise once!), trades/sales that are not on the FR site, or NSFW stuff please. Keep it PG-13.

What is allowed: Pretty much anything else! Lore talk, dragon showoff, you name it. I want to see and gush about ALL your pretty babies!